The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (or OBRA-93[1]) was a federal law that was enacted by the 103rd United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It has also been referred to, unofficially, as the Deficit Reduction Act of 1993. Part XIII, which dealt with taxes and is also called the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1993.

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Previously the top individual tax rate of 31% applied to all income over $51,900. The Act created a new bracket of 36% for income above $115,000, and 39.6% for income above $250,000.[2]

Previously, corporate income above $335,000 was taxed at 34%. The Act created new brackets of 35% for income from $10 million to $15 million, 38% for income from $15 million to $18.33 million, and 35% for income above $18.33 million.[3]

The 2.9% Medicare tax previously was capped to only apply to the first $135,000 of income. This cap was removed.

Transportation fuels taxes were raised by 4.3 cents per gallon.

The portion of Social Security benefits subject to income taxes was raised from 50% to 85%.[4]

The phase-out of the personal exemption and limit on itemized deductions were permanently extended.

Part IV Section 14131: Expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and added inflation adjustments

Some alternatives to the bill included a proposal by Senator David Boren (D-OK), which among other things would have kept much of the tax increase on upper-income payers but would have eliminated all energy tax increases while also scaling back the Earned Income Tax Credit. It was endorsed by Bill Cohen (R-ME), Bennett Johnston (D-LA), and John Danforth (R-MO). Boren's proposal never passed committee. Clinton himself claimed he had an alternative tax proposal that favored taxes on energy. Later in 1995 he expressed belief that taxes had been raised too much (In 1997, Congress cut the capital gains tax from 28 to 20%).[5][6]

Another proposal was offered in the House of Representatives by John Kasich (R-OH). He sponsored an amendment that would have reduced the deficit by cutting $355 billion in spending with $129 billion of the cuts coming from entitlement programs (the actual bill cut entitlement spending by only $42 billion). The amendment would have eliminated any tax increases. The amendment failed by a 138-295 vote with many Republicans voting against the amendment and only six Democrats voting in favor of the amendment.

Ultimately every Republican in Congress voted against the bill, as did a number of Democrats. Vice PresidentAl Gore broke a tie in the Senate on both the Senate bill and the conference report. The House bill passed 219-213 on Thursday, May 27, 1993.[1] The House passed the conference report on Thursday, August 5, 1993, by a vote of 218 to 216 (217 Democrats and 1 independent (Sanders (I-VT)) voting in favor; 41 Democrats and 175 Republicans voting against).[2] The Senate passed the conference report on the last day before their month's vacation, on Friday, August 6, 1993, by a vote of 51 to 50 (50 Democrats plus Vice President Gore voting in favor, 6 Democrats (Lautenberg (D-NJ), Bryan (D-NV), Nunn (D-GA), Johnston (D-LA), Boren (D-OK), and Shelby (D-AL) now (R-AL)) and 44 Republicans voting against). President Clinton signed the bill on August 10, 1993.

The government was able to raise additional revenue, which {when combined with the spending cuts passed by the GOP Congress in 1997 in the Balanced Budget Act} helped balance the budget and by the end of the 1990s began to reduce privately held public debt.[5]